Gary Jefferies welcomes aboard SJAM's John McWhinnie early this season. The Golden Hawks coach reminisced about a stellar career with Wilfrid Laurier University's football program.

Jeffries says goodbye to Golden Hawks

By Jordan Ercit, Chronicle Staff

Every year, Gary Jeffries would go through the same routine with his close friend and honourary Wilfrid Laurier football coach Greg Walton.

At the end of the season, Walton, a 70-year-old Waterloo native and fixture at Golden Hawks and Waterloo Siskins junior-B hockey games, would approach Jeffries with his letter of resignation, citing a list of suitors who were looking to add him to the roster.

But Jeffries was always able to convince Walton to come back. “The Steelers and the Browns have all been asking for him, but we outbid them every year,” Jeffries said. “He’s going to be a lifer.”

However, for the first time since the two met in 1978, Jeffries will not have the pleasure of luring Walton back to the sidelines next fall at Laurier Golden Hawks football games.

That is because Jeffries himself handed in his retirement papers on Thursday, ending a storied 43-year career as a player, coach and administrator at the university, one that included a CIS national coach of the year award, six Yates Cup titles and two Vanier Cup championships during separate stints as the Golden Hawks’ head coach and defensive co-ordinator.

For some, it came as a shock considering Jeffries told the Waterloo Region Record recently he wanted to fulfill the final year of his contract in 2013.

To others, it was an eventual outcome after the Hawks waded through a series of middling seasons after the 2005 Vanier Cup championship season, including a disappointing, sub-.500 campaign in 2012 that ended on Oct. 27 with a first-round 34-0 playoff loss to the Queen’s Gaels.

The Hawks (3-5) also finished the season with the OUA’s worst offence, averaging a measly 262.75 yards per game, and without an offensive touchdown during the entire month of October.

So what happened that made Jeffries change his mind?

“My heart was telling me this is where I want to be, but my head said it’s time,” Jeffries said. “Rarely in my life have I used my head, but I think I did this time.”

What isn’t in doubt is the legacy Jeffries left at Seagram Drive.

A former protégé of Tuffy Knight, Rich Newbrough and Rick Zmich, the former all-star defensive back leaves Laurier with a career record of 69-31, two Yates Cups, four OUA coach-of-the-year awards, one CIS national coach-of-the-year honour and a Vanier Cup title since taking the job in 2002.

The Burlington native also spent eight years pacing the sidelines as the Golden Hawks men’s basketball coach, and five seasons with the lady cagers.

“Gary is leaving behind a great tradition of success with Golden Hawk football,” said Peter Baxter, Laurier’s director of athletics and recreation. “He has always been a fierce competitor and wanted to win more than anyone else on the field. The success that he brought to Laurier will leave a lasting legacy, one that we will ensure is continued moving forward.

“It is now our goal to find a new leader who will build upon the legacy that Gary is leaving behind. We will begin a national search to find the individual who fits the best interests of the program moving forward.”

But Jeffries’ legacy extends beyond wins and losses. Respected for his competitive drive and defensive football instincts — which according to media reports have attracted interest from other OUA programs — Jeffries also made sure people next to him were rewarded for their hard work and loyalty, like Walton, who is developmentally challenged after a severe case of meningitis.

And few were as loyal as Walton, who met Jeffries in 1978 when the latter was hired to manage the Waterloo Tigers in the Intercounty Baseball League. It started with a tap on the shoulder when Jeffries, a former professional player in the Detroit Tigers’ system, was told Walton would be his new pitching coach.

They have been together ever since, with Walton giving pre-season speeches and pacing the sidelines, clipboard in hand. For that, he got a Vanier Cup ring from the 2005 title game.

“Every sport I’ve coached … he’s always been there,” Jeffries said. “He’s a special friend and I think the world of him.”

It has Jeffries hoping they can reunite on the sidelines again. “If history means anything, I would say that would be the case.”